REINAS Visualization

Abstract:

The REINAS system is built to support realtime data acquisition,
management, and visualization of environmental data at a regional scale
(Monterey Bay to start with).
As such it is logically organized into three components:
instrumentation/system to support acquisition,
spatial and temporal database management,
and interactive visualization.
We have also identified three main classes of users:
instrumentation engineers and casual users,
operational forecasters,
and scientists.

The REINAS visualization system is organized to meet the
needs of these three classes of users.
It is therefore organized into three modes of operation:
monitor mode (for watching the latest environmental parameters
around Monterey Bay and for obtaining readings from specific instruments),
forecast mode (for obtaining standard and customized weather products),
and analysis mode (for retrospective analysis of synoptic data).
Images from these three modes are available below.
To help acceptance of the visualization system by our target users,
we strive to make the interface as friendly as possible.
We also use common day metaphors to make interaction more
intuitive.
See
spray rendering
.
Since we cannot possibly anticipate all (current and future)
visualization needs, one of the design objective is to make
the system easily extensible with little or no programming.
See
mix and match
.
Another key that helps bring collaborators "together"
is to facilitate collaboration over the Internet.
See
collaborative visualization
.
Finally,
to help publicize our efforts,
anyone with Internet access can obtain the latest
reading from some our instruments through Xmet.
For example, click
here
to get the view from Dream Inn, Santa Cruz
and the current weather conditions a few miles away
at UCSC Long Marine Laboratory.

Papers:

A postscript version of the paper to be presented at the Oceans'95
conference in San Diego on October, 1995 talks about the REINAS
Instrumentation and Visualization systems and
is available through anonymous ftp from
ftp.cse.ucsc.edu
,
then get pub/reinas/papers/ocean95.rvis.ps.gz,
or
click
here .

Images:

Source:

One can obtain the source for REINAS visualization by anonymous ftp to:
ftp.cse.ucsc.edu
then cd pub/reinas/spray.
Note that this ftp version is not currently being supported
as our efforts are concentrated on the next version of REINAS visualization.

People:

People involved in the development of the REINAS visualization
system at one point or another:

Coming soon:

We are working on the next generation of the REINAS visualization system.
The new version is written in C++ and OpenGL.
We are also using the public domain
xforms
for the GUI.
Target date for first release is September, 1995.
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